“Lee Jae-myung Administration to Cut Support for 450,000 Elderly Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes” Concerns Grow...

“Lee Jae-myung Administration to Cut Support for 450,000 Elderly Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes” Concerns over Project Restructuring
Reporter Lee Jae-won 2026. 9. 29. 06:28
Expansion from 19 to 29 centers… KRW 5.2 billion for medical and pharmaceutical support to be fully slashed
Push to suspend support for 450,000 elderly... “Weakens the link between patient registration and continuous treatment”
Experts: “Existing systems should not be scaled back without verifying the effectiveness of the new project”
[Medical News/Daily Pharma = Reporter Lee Jae-won] As the Lee Jae-myung administration moves to launch the Community-based Primary Care Innovation Pilot Project while restructuring the Hypertension and Diabetes Registration and Management Project into Integrated Chronic Disease Management Centers, concerns are being raised that the plan to eliminate existing medical and pharmaceutical support for elderly patients could undermine the core mechanisms of the proven community-based chronic disease management system.
While there is consensus on the direction of the new primary care innovation project—aiming for comprehensive chronic disease management using integrated fees and multidisciplinary teams—critics point out that it should not be used as a justification to scale back existing community projects, given that challenges such as medical institution/patient participation, accessibility for vulnerable groups, and community connectivity still need to be verified.
In particular, more than 9 out of 10 patients currently receiving medical and pharmaceutical support through the Hypertension and Diabetes Registration and Management Project evaluated that the support helps them regularly use clinics and pharmacies. Medical professionals and pharmacists also predict that if the support disappears, there is a high possibility that regular visits and long-term medication adherence will decline. Furthermore, while the government plans to replace the medical and pharmaceutical support for the hypertension/diabetes project through the "Health Life Practice Support Fund" under the Primary Care Chronic Disease Management System, critics argue that it will be difficult for the elderly and vulnerable populations to replace the existing support, as it requires the use of apps and verification of health activities.
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